Chapter 14 - The False Signature
“That’s not my signature.”
Martin Vale leaned toward the monitor.
“It looks like it.”
“It isn’t.”
“I believe you.”
The policy had been opened eight months earlier through a brokerage I had never used.
The application included medical records, financial statements, and a scanned copy of my driver’s license.
Someone had built a complete version of me on paper.
“Can Rebecca collect if I die?” I asked.
“Not if this is fraudulent,” Martin said. “But fraud does not stop someone who expects the fraud to remain undiscovered.”
Torres folded her arms.
“So Caleb’s plan may have been larger than the trust.”
“Drug Ethan,” Lena said. “Make him look impaired. Take control of the company or trust. If that fails…”
Nobody finished the sentence.
They did not need to.
My phone rang.
Nathan.
His voice was panicked.
“Ethan, the hospital just locked down our floor.”
I stood.
“Why?”
“Somebody pulled the fire alarm.”
Every part of me went cold.
“Where is Henry?”
“With me.”
“Stay inside the room. Lock the door. Do not open it for anyone except Torres.”
“I’m already doing that.”
We ran.
At the hospital, alarms screamed while staff moved patients away from smoke doors.
There was no fire.
Security footage showed a maintenance worker entering the stairwell with a tool bag.
He was not a maintenance worker.
Victor identified him immediately.
“Caleb.”
He had shaved his beard, changed his hair, and put on glasses.
But it was him.
The footage showed Caleb heading toward the pediatric floor.
Then disappearing into a blind spot.
“Search every room,” Torres ordered.
I ran toward Henry’s room.
The door was locked.
“Nathan!”
“It’s me!” he shouted from inside.
The door opened.
Henry was safe.
I grabbed him and held him against my chest.
Then I saw the open bathroom window.
We were on the fourth floor.
A service platform ran outside the building.
On the sink sat a phone that did not belong to us.
The screen lit up.
A video started automatically.
Rebecca appeared on-screen.
Her face was bruised. Her hands were tied.
Caleb stood behind her.
“Ethan,” he said, “you have something I want.”
May you like
He raised a gun into frame.
“The flash drive for Rebecca.”
